Upcoming Events

Did premodern Muslims possess a concept of "religion"? In this presentation, Ahmed el Shamsy will examine how the fourteenth-century Damascene theologian Ibn Taymiyya uses the Arabic term dīn to theorize phenomena as diverse as the Abrahamic faiths, Zoroastrianism, peripatetic philosophy, and the belief system of the Mongols. The overall goal is to stimulate a conversation about how emic theories can contribute to the analysis of the historical phenomenon of religion.

Organized by Mercedes García-Arenal, Katharina Heyden, David Nirenberg, and Davide Scotto

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are often understood as an ensemble of three (‘Abrahamic,’ ‘monotheistic,’ scriptural, or prophetic) religious communities and traditions. But often when adherents of two of these “sibling” religions interact, the third is treated as a figure to be marginalized, stigmatized, or instrumentally exploited vis-à-vis the others. This conference proposes to explore this dynamic of the excluded third.

Click this link for the Call for Papers. Proposals are due by June 1, 2024.